The horrific attacks in Paris last Friday have renewed a debate in Europe that now seems similar to Americans: how to find and maintain a balance between protecting civil liberties with counterterrorism initiatives.
France and Belgium have moved in recent days to strengthen their respective countries’ security forces. Britain is doing much the same. While the U.S. has eased some of the provisions of the Patriot Act over the years, western Europe seems to mostly be heading in the other direction.
France is currently in a state of emergency, and the government has instructed police to use their emergency powers to disrupt any and all terror plots around the country; many have already been arrested for involvement in plots not specifically related to Paris.
“The state of emergency, it’s true, justifies certain temporary restrictions on liberties,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said. “But resorting to this, it’s to give us every chance to fully restore these liberties.”
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has not gone as far as his French counterpart, but seeks to make legal and constitutional changes to make it easier to capture and try people suspected of having ties to terrorism.
Jan Techau, head of a Brussels-based research organization, said that “There is a sense that the authorities are no longer in control, and it’s a clear attempt by authorities to regain some trust.”
[via NYT]
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